The Amberjack Assessment – Full Guide, Free Practice, and Tips [2024]
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A blended assessment aimed at measuring the 4 pillars of pure potential via situational judgment, numerical, and verbal questions.
By assessing 4 rather non-conventional “pillars” of potential job success, the Amberjack Assessment may look standard, but it is anything but. The test’s positive candidate experience and bias-free selection methodology make it increasingly popular for hiring younger candidates.
The Amberjack Assessment is a blended assessment that combines behavioral, situational judgment and cognitive items to assess a candidate’s potential job success. That structure is motivated by Amberjack’s vision of measuring pure potential rather than past experience or privilege.
As such, this assessment is predominantly used in early talent positions – graduates, apprenticeships, and placements. Leading employers using the Amberjack Assessment are AtkinsRéalis, Morrisons, BDO, Allen & Overy, and more.
Amberjack Assessment Video Guide
Test Structure and Question Format
While Amberjack modifies its assessment to suit the particular employer, at its core, the assessment follows a rather standard format:
22 multiple-choice/ranking questions
3 interview questions (written/video)
Situational judgment questions follow a Most-Least format.
Cognitive questions simulate an email from a colleague.
Below we cover the basic characteristics of each question type.
In the Free Practice section, you can see some examples with explanations and recommendations for success. You may also check the Test Interface section for more details on how the assessment works.
Situational Judgment Questions
These questions constitute the majority of the Amberjack test, and include a brief scenario followed by 4 optional responses.
You will need to rank the most and least recommended responses.
Pro Tip
Some of the situational judgment questions will assess 2 pillars simultaneously and will therefore be trickier. To prepare yourself for this challenge, check out the Preparation section.
Numerical Questions
This type of question will be structured as an email from a colleague, including one or more numerical data sources – graphs and tables. Your fictitious colleague will ask you a question based on the information, and you will be required to choose the correct response out of 4 possible answers.
Pro Tip
The numerical questions are characterized by information overload – see more in the Tips section.
Verbal Questions
The Verbal questions are similar to the numerical ones in structure and format, but you will be requested to respond to a question regarding a short piece of text. You will need to choose the correct response out of 3 options.
While these questions are complex, you should be careful not to rely on any information other than the text.
Amberjack Assessment Preparation
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Tailored job-related scenarios
Follows the test’s Most/Least (SJT) and colleague email (cognitive) format
Scoring based on the 4 pillars of Amberjack (Grit, Creative Force, Applied Intellect, and Digital Mindset)
What Do You Get?
2 online practice tests (42 questions total)
Highly detailed answers and explanations to all questions
Bonus: the Amberjack Measured Traits PDF Guide
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The last part of the Amberjack Assessment consists of several video questions.
You will be allowed to prepare your response for as long as you want.
You will have 2 minutes to record your response.
You will have only one shot to record your response. Once you start recording, you will not be able to pause or restart.
Pro Tip
The video questions will function as a standard interview, but will not be reviewed by your employer, rather by an Amberjack assessor. The assessor will review your responses specifically based on the 4 pillars measured by the assessment (see below, as well as the Tips section).
What Does the Amberjack Assessment Measure?
The Amberjack Assessment is designed to measure candidates’ potential of success in the job they applied for. To do so, the test assesses 4 key pillars, divided into 11 sub-categories.
Here are the 4 pillars of the Amberjack Assessment:
Grit
Grit is a person’s ability to keep pursuing goals in the face of challenge, to adapt to changes and improve.
This pillar is divided into 3 sub-categories:
Resilience
Passion (Drive)
Delivery (Agility)
Creative Force
Creative Force means the confidence and ability to test and implement new approaches and ways of thinking. It is a future-oriented mindset that focuses on positive change of self and others.
The 3 traits measured in this pillar are:
Future Focus
Original Vision
Agent of Change
Applied Intellect
A high Applied Intellect indicates the ability to apply one’s intelligence and knowledge to a variety of situations and generate innovative solutions to problems. While traditional assessments measure only cognitive ability, in the Amberjack Assessment it is only one of 3 components:
Cognitive Ability
Social and Emotional Intelligence
Learning Agility
Digital Mindset
Digital Mindset is the natural proclivity to use technological solutions – not necessarily practical technological knowledge, but the openness to new technology and the abilities to conceptualize, adapt, and utilize it. Two traits are included in this pillar:
Technological Mindset
Digital Creativity
What Employers Use the Amberjack Assessment?
Amberjack is particularly popular among UK employers hiring for early careers. Some major employers using the assessment in their hiring process are:
If you have been to take an Amberjack test, you will receive a test invitation via email directly from your employer.
The invitation will not always include the name Amberjack, but if it includes or links to either of the following names, it means you will be taking the Amberjack assessment:
Amberjack
Weareamberjack
Ambertrack
Here is, for instance, the Amberjack test invitation sent to candidates by Atkins:
Test Interface
The interface of the Amberjack assessment is modern, interactive, and rather easy to follow. A 5-minutes video in the beginning of the assessment will provide you with all you need to know.
However, here are some important things to know in advance:
The test is untimed, but time will have an effect on your score, particularly in the cognitive ability questions.
You are allowed to use a calculator and scratch paper.
You will need a webcam and a microphone for the video interview section.
Cognitive and situational judgment questions are mixed through the assessment.
This free Amberjack sample practice test is designed to get you familiar with:
Types of questions
Measured pillars (traits)
Level of difficulty
The test contains 6 questions and is untimed.
Good luck!
Question 1
Recommended Answer
Most: B
Least: D
This question aims to measure the Creative Force pillar. The core of the question revolves around your approach to innovation and change.
Let’s review each response:
Answer A – Stick to your mentor’s recommendation for now. You can look into other ways of doing things when you gain some more experience.
This response lacks some flexibility and self-confidence. The way you approach problems should not depend on your experience, rather the objective details of the case. Being open to learning and adapting to new methods is always desirable, even if you lack experience. Remember that the very aim of the Amberjack Assessment is to eliminate the effect of past experience and knowledge.
Answer B – Approach your colleagues and ask them for the reasons they are doing things in this manner.
This is the most recommended response. It demonstrates openness to change and a healthy approach to innovation. By asking for your colleagues’ feedback, you will be able to better understand what solutions and methods are best for each scenario, what will allow you, as you gain more experience, to make such informed decisions on your own.
Answer C – Send an email to your mentor, as you want to make sure that team members are following the company’s protocols.
This response is rather similar in essence to answer A. It shows that you rely mostly on authority as your guide to decision making, rather than on the specific, relevant case at hand. However, this response is not as bad as response D, as it at least demonstrates modesty and willingness to self-doubt.
Answer D – Gently inform your colleagues that they are doing their work the wrong way and suggest giving them a brief on the correct method.
This is the least recommended response. It demonstrates a rigid mindset that lacks openness to new ideas and approaches. This mindset eventually results in a behavior that may be considered arrogant, as you determine your colleagues’ actions as incorrect in advance, before allowing them to comment.
Question 2
Recommended Answer
Most: D
Least: A
This question measures two pillars: Grit and Applied Intellect. The core of the question is twofold:
How motivated and committed are you to achieve your goals in the face of setbacks (Grit).
How you socially and emotionally operate within a team (Applied Intellect).
A table will help exemplify this:
Response
Grit
Social and Emotional Intelligence
A (Least)
Low
Low
B
High
Low
C
Low
High
D (Most)
High
High
Let’s review each response:
Answer A – It’s best not to get involved with informal conversations you are not part of. Do what you can to reach your own revenue goals.
This is the least recommended response as it is low on both social intelligence and grit. “Doing what you can” demonstrates a somewhat passive approach that is set on maintaining roughly the same effort and methods of work that have been taken thus far. Additionally, by ignoring your teammates’ situation, you are taking a passive approach in that sense as well.
Answer B – Stay overtime to make sure your personal goals are met, so you are not held accountable for the entire team’s lack of performance.
This response demonstrates high levels of grit. However, by being selfish and taking care of yourself alone, it shows low social and emotional intelligence.
Answer C – Volunteer to approach your team leader on behalf of the whole team and ask for an extension to meet your goals.
This response is opposite to response C. It demonstrates care for your team and high social and emotional intelligence, but completely lacks grit. By requesting to extend the time to meet your goals you are not tackling the problem, rather attempting to avert it.
Answer D – Set up a team meeting the following day to share ideas on how everyone can improve their work and meet their goals.
This is the most recommended response. It demonstrates both grit – motivation to take the initiative and overcome a challenge, AND social intelligence, by keeping everyone involved and helping the team rather than yourself.
Each test resembles the real Amberjack Assessment content, sturcture, and format.
Highly detailed answers and explanations to all questions
In-depth analysis of the 4 Pillars (Grit, Creative Force, Applied Intellect, and Digital Mindset) and their 11 sub-traits
30-day access
The preparation is conducted on third-party website ClassMarker.
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Question 3
Answer and Explanation
The correct answer is 2.
To find the IceBerg’s revenue as a percentage of all three brands, we will:
Sum up the monthly revenue of each brand.
Sum up the total revenue of all three brands.
Find the percentage of each brand of this total.
Results are shown in the table below:
Month
Fortescue
IceBerg
Munchkin
Jan
140
90
50
Feb
210
100
120
ar
130
50
110
Apr
200
70
130
May
150
110
220
Jun
170
30
100
Jul
200
20
90
Aug
160
20
80
Sep
90
60
80
Oct
110
80
60
Nov
80
120
70
Dec
70
100
50
Total
1,710
850
1,160
IceBerg’s revenue (850) accounts for approximately 22.8% of the total revenue of all three brands (1,710 + 850 + 1,160).
Question 4
Answer and Explanation
The correct answer is 1.
While this question contains a lot of information, most of it is irrelevant. What interests us is the overall cost of each training program.
That can be calculated as follows:
Overall Cost = 125 x [Cost per Employee] x [1 – Discount] + [Registration Fee]
Results are shown in the table below:
Program
Cost for Employees
Registration Fee
Total
Storytelling
125 x $170 = $17,000
$5,000
$22,000
UX/UI
125 x $200 = $21,250
$2,500
$23,750
A/B Testing
125x $185 = $23,125
$2,500
$25,625
So, Storytelling training is the cheapest option at $22,000.
Question 5
Answer and Explanation
The correct answer is 1.
According to the text:
“Over the past two decades…senior management increasinglyview…emotional intelligence as crucial for effective leadership and have made these skills a key requirement in their search for candidates.”
The word “increasingly” indicates that senior management view emotional intelligence as more crucial for effective leadership than twenty years ago.
Question 6
Answer and Explanation
The correct answer is 3.
According to the text: “…transformations also require the commitment and involvement of the entire organization to prevail – managers and employees alike.
Hence, a digital transformation imposed by senior management will likely be unsuccessful, according to the text. Similarly, a transformation which leaves senior management behind (as in answer 4) is also likely to fail.
4 Expert Tips for the Amberjack Assessment
Considering all the unique features of the Amberjack Assessment, here are 4 tips for acing it:
Tip #1 – In the Numerical Questions, Take a Look at the Answers First
The numerical questions in the Amberjack Assessment are characterized by an information overload. While this may be confusing, looking at the possible answers before approaching the actual question might significantly simplify the solution.
For instance, you may be given the financial data for a whole year and be asked to find the find the most profitable month. By checking only the answer options, you can calculate only 4 months rather than 12.
Note that this will not always be the case, and you will occasionally be required to conduct rather long calculations.
Tip #2 – In the Verbal Questions, Focus on Encapsulating Main Ideas
The verbal questions on the Amberjack Assessment will mostly assess your inferential comprehension – namely, extract nuances of various places in the text to infera main, complex idea presented in the text. They will not aim to measure your vocabulary, grammar, or understanding of specific elements of the text.
Here are some examples:
According to the text, what is the main benefit of X over Y?
According to the text, in what cases should one use X?
How would you describe the text’s definition of X?
Tip #3 – In SJT Questions, Always Consider the 4 Pillars
In the Test Overview section, we have covered the 4 pillars assessed by Amberjack – Grit, Creative Force, Applied Intellect, and Digital Mindset. Whenever you approach a situational judgment question, consider:
What pillar is being assessed?
What responses are most and least aligned with this pillar?
Tip #4 – Practice for the Interview Section
Your responses to the video questions will be reviewed by a human assessor, as is mentioned on Amberjack’s manual. The assessor will evaluate your responses against the behavioral traits measured in the assessment.
Therefore, it is important to prepare some experiences, thoughts and behaviors that reflect these traits. Here are some examples for questions you may be asked, and their respective measured traits.
Grit
What challenges do you expect to encounter on the job, and how do you plan to overcome them?
What would you consider as success in your career?
Creative Force
How do you see your future in the company and in the industry in general?
Describe an incident in which you have applied a new solution to a problem you have faced.
Applied Intellect
What are the personal strengths and skills do you believe will be most influential for your ability to succeed in this role?
How will this role help you to develop personally and professionally?
Digital Mindset
What new technologies and tools do you believe will have the most impact on the future of the industry?
How do you approach the need to integrate new technologies in your work?
Amberjack Assessment Preparation Course
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What Does the Preparation Include?
The Amberjack Assessment Preparation includes:
2 Interactive Practice Tests
Match the actual test in terms of questions (21), content, and question format.
Combines situational judgment and cognitive questions, as on the actual assessment
Taken on the third-party website Classmarker, a trusted testing platform for over 15 years.
Detailed Feedback to All Questions
In-depth analysis of each and every response in the situational judgment questions
Explanations based on the 4 pillars of the Amberjack Assessment (Grit, Creative Force, Applied Intellect, and Digital Mindset)
Additional Amberjack Measured Traits PDF guide to maximize your understanding of the situational judgment section
Formatted as colleague emails – similar to the actual assessment
Industry-related subject matter
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